A look at various wicking materials for rebuildable atomizers

[Magaro]

Of late I have become determined to find the ideal wicking materials for my various attys and e-liquids. I decided to start a thread to document my observations and impressions of some of the cotton/cellulose materials that seem to be popular at the moment. I may dig into some of the “vintage” and non-cellulosic materials as well - I haven’t really decided. I’ve only been rebuilding for about 6 months right now, and for the first 5 months I pretty much just used Muji cotton pads without giving it much thought because they worked pretty well. No claims to any expertise here - just a curious vaper sharing his findings. Comments, suggestions and recommendations are most welcome.

Here’s a group photo of the first 7 wicking materials which motivated me to start this little comparative survey:

First row left: MUJI Japan 4 Layers Facial Cotton Pad
First row right: Ohm Busters Japanese Organic Cotton
Second row left: Fiber Freaks Cellulose Wick Density No. 2
Second row right: Fiber Freaks Cellulose Wick Density No. 1
Third row left: Drago Premium Cotton
Third row right: Wick N’ vape Cotton Bacon Version 2.0
Fourth row: Vapers Choice Cotton

I’ll post some close-up photos and brief observations/impressions of these materials shortly.

 

[Magaro]

Muji cotton pads

My old stand-by. Can’t complain, they have served me well. Layered cosmetic pads with good density, relatively high whiteness, no seeds.

Easily peeled apart into 4 individual sheets, ready for cutting or tearing into individual wicks.

Decent bang for the buck (be sure to shop around, prices vary wildly), especially considering their uniformity and ease of use. As-received, the outer skin of the pads is somewhat compacted, perhaps from the bonding and drying process.

From about Day 2 using these, I decided to boil them. I peel them into layers and add them to a pot of distilled water. Boil. drain, and boil again. Then I lay them out onto CLEAN kitchen towels to dry. Sounds labor-intensive, but it really isn’t bad - especially if you like to multitask. After this, the Muji takes on an entirely different character - expanding in thickness by about 3X. Very pleasant to work with.

As long as you don’t over-stuff your coil, you shouldn’t have any problems with it tearing when you pull through the coil. One thing: you might find using scissors preferable to tearing wicks, as the fiber alignment isn’t great and tearing produces pretty ragged edges, especially for boiled Muji.

But if you take care to roll up your wick its no big deal - this is how I prefer to do it.

For me, this is the baseline. It’s what I started with, it’s what I know best. I enjoy wicking a coil with hand-torn boiled Muji. If I’m in a hurry, I cut a strip off an as-received pad. They both work pretty well. But as I said in the OP, I’m looking for more. Next I’ll take a quick look at Ohm Busters Japanese Organic Cotton.

 

[DaveSignal]

I use this:
Amazon.com : Cotton Labo ORGANIC Cotton Puff Size M (200pc) : Cotton Balls : Beauty
looks like its $6 now for a 200 pack. It is identical in appearance to the top right which you have labeled ohm busters.
This is Japanese organic cotton. It wicks wonderfully and is so easy. I don't boil it or peel off the outside or anything like that. Just cut off a strip and put it through the coil.

 

[Magaro]

Organic Japanese cotton pads

First received these as an add-in to an atty I purchased. Nice clean cut little pads, slight brown organic-looking color.

Not layered like the Muji - the core of the pad is a dense mat of tangled fibers that pulls apart quite randomly.

The skin layer is very dense on these pads. It adds quite a bit of strength if you like to cut strips and pull them through your coil, but it seems to suffer from reduced wicking - juice spreads out on it rather than simply absorbing in and spreading. Also the user surface doesn’t exhibit much cohesive strength when rolling a wick - the wick tries to unroll before I can insert it into the coil. Wetting it helps, but thats not how I like to work. Personally, I always peel it off and just use the soft inner fibers.

Some pads can be a little seedy - not really a performance issue, just a little too groovy for my taste. YMMV.

The fibers are nicely aligned, albeit quite short. The tensile strength (with the skin layer off) seems roughly comparable to the Muji pads - fair at best.

I mostly like this cotton. It's a pretty decent go-to for quick wick building.

Next I'll take a look at a synthetic cellulose that seems to generate a buzz: Fiber Freaks.

 

[Froth]

That Drago doesn't look "Premium at all", it looks like dryer lint...

I've tried about a dozen different wick materials, From six different types of Cotton to Seacell fiber(Seaweed) to Degummed hemp to 100% Rayon, and I'll be honest that the Rayon from Graham(Part number 44060) beats out everything I've ever tried in every category, ease of use, price, flavor, longevity and performance. For me, this Rayon has it all, and you can get 500ft which is a near lifetime supply for under $15.

This is the Rayon I'm referencing, I'd love to see it in your comparisons against some of the better known "vape specific" materials.

Graham Part number 44060.

 

[Magaro]

That Drago doesn't look "Premium at all", it looks like dryer lint...

Looks can be deceiving...

 

[Froth]

Looks can be deceiving...

I've used the stuff, the looks aren't deceiving at all to me. Honestly I was more speaking to your picture because the Drago Premium I was using looked much cleaner than the pictured stuff you have, the entire pack of it had no section that looked so dirty as that picture.

 

[Magaro]

I've used the stuff, the looks aren't deceiving at all to me. Honestly I was more speaking to your picture because the Drago Premium I was using looked much cleaner than the pictured stuff you have, the entire pack of it had no section that looked so dirty as that picture.

Not exactly sure what you think looks "dirty" about it. In any case, here's a photo of the same piece taken in a light box instead of on my kitchen table.

 

[Froth]

Not exactly sure what you think looks "dirty" about it. In any case, here's a photo of the same piece taken in a light box instead of on my kitchen table.

Oh snap High-res pics of debris suspended in cotton, sweet.

Edit: There's a hair in there. Hope it's yours.

 

[Magaro]

Froth said:

Oh snap High-res pics of debris suspended in cotton, sweet.

Edit: There's a hair in there. Hope it's yours.

-----------------

Actually, they're mostly seeds, which are part of the cotton.

And yeah, I noticed the stray fiber before I posted the picture. I decided to leave it there just for you.

 

[Zipslack]

If you ever saw cotton freshly pulled from the plant, you would realize that it looks very much like the above picture. It's after you heavily process and bleach it that it looks like the store stuff. Also, those aren't seed - probably just small bits of seed hulls leftover. Cotton seeds are about as big as Apple seeds.

 

[Magaro]

If you ever saw cotton freshly pulled from the plant, you would realize that it looks very much like the above picture. It's after you heavily process and bleach it that it looks like the store stuff. Also, those aren't seed - probably just small bits of seed hulls leftover. Cotton seeds are about as big as Apple seeds.

Seed hulls - correction noted. Thanks.

 

[classwife]

If you ever saw cotton freshly pulled from the plant, you would realize that it looks very much like the above picture. It's after you heavily process and bleach it that it looks like the store stuff. Also, those aren't seed - probably just small bits of seed hulls leftover. Cotton seeds are about as big as Apple seeds.

 

[Zipslack]

Could also be insect turds....but let's not think about that!

 

[Robert Cromwell]

I use this:

$3.29 as I recall for about 3 years worth. Works great. Not organic and I will likely die a horrible lingering death, but not due to the cotton I think
It looks like the cotton bacon and is USA cotton.

 

[Zipslack]

Looking forward to the rayon report since I haven't made that jump yet.

 

[Magaro]

Fiber Freaks Density No. 1 & 2

No desire to get into all the bickering and hoopla around this material. Apparently it is simply Lyocell, structurally similar to Rayon and made by a different chemical dissolution method. Very environmentally friendly material.

Density No. 2 comes as a thin pad of high, relatively uniform density.

The spun fibers are non-oriented and quite long. They seem to be very extensively interlocked, making the pad extremely difficult to tear in any direction.

The pad can be peeled into sheets of somewhat random density with some clumpy regions of dense fibers.

From what I can gather, the recommended approach to using FF No. 2 is to cut strips and use as-is.

The problem I see is that once you cut a narrow strip , you dramatically reduce the length of the random fibers. The tensile strength of the wick is shockingly low and its easy to tear. On the plus side, you can easily tear off the ends of the wick, exposing a nice loose mass of fibers that look like they could be highly absorbent.

Density No. 1 basically looks like a much fluffier variant of Density No. 2 - duh. Jarringly clean and white like a good synthetic should be.

Very difficult to peel into layers - it just pulls apart into a loose mass of fibers.

Like the No. 2, the lack of fiber alignment makes the No.1 difficult to tear in any direction.

Based solely on first impressions, I have reservations about these materials. I’m not sure I’ll enjoy working with it, but time will tell.

Next I'll take a look at the Drago Egyptian cotton.

 

[thetrucker]

That Drago doesn't look "Premium at all", it looks like dryer lint...

I've tried about a dozen different wick materials, From six different types of Cotton to Seacell fiber(Seaweed) to Degummed hemp to 100% Rayon, and I'll be honest that the Rayon from Graham(Part number 44060) beats out everything I've ever tried in every category, ease of use, price, flavor, longevity and performance. For me, this Rayon has it all, and you can get 500ft which is a near lifetime supply for under $15.

This is the Rayon I'm referencing, I'd love to see it in your comparisons against some of the better known "vape specific" materials.

Graham Part number 44060.

I 've tried this and it works about as good as any thing I've tried but 500 feet--run out of this in no time--hahahahahahahahahahahahh

 

[Robert Cromwell]

How about some sheet material suitable for redoing vertical coils?

 

[herb]

I have tried just about everything and the differences to me are not noticeable enough to care one way or the other, Rayon does last a lot longer than cotton but as far as taste they are all just way too close .

Ramie is good but no matter how many times you boil it it has a weird taste that you just can't shake.